The invention relates to a shaft support comprising a radial static fluid bearing provided with a bearing sleeve and an axial static fluid bearing as well as a shaft rotatably arranged in the bearing sleeve.
In a shaft support of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph and known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,493,273, the axial fluid bearing has axially directed fluid supplies merging at a flange on the shaft. An oblique positioning of the shaft in a bearing sleeve with a unilateral load on the shaft is avoided by an increase of pressure in the radial fluid space between a wall of a disk-shaped chamber and the disk-shaped flange situated in this chamber. The radial bearing capacity of the shaft support is solely supplied by the radial fluid bearing. Due to the small gap width of the axial fluid bearing, the torque of the axial fluid bearing, which can counteract an oblique positioning of the shaft, is comparatively limited. Further, the radial bearing capacity of the radial fluid bearing is determinative of the total or the maximum radial bearing capacity of the shaft support.